Delirium
by L. D. Nicolescu
Summary: Kushina is being held by the Konoha police when they discover her being helped by an enemy army. Minato wants answers on to what had happened at the last battle they fought together, yet when he comes visit her, he sees something he shouldn't. Sequel to In the Aftermath.


**Delirium**

* * *

_"Severe confusion and disorientation, developing with relatively rapid onset and fluctuating in intensity." Sequel to In the Aftermath._

* * *

Minato walked slowly. He had never had the chance to visit the dungeons under the Hokage tower, because he had never knew Konoha had them in the first place. Yet, here he was being guided through the labyrinth of darkness that the dungeons imposed; not as a visitation to learn their layout, but as a very rare and extremely opposed (by Danzo) visit to his best friend who was being held there. Danzo and the Hokage advisers had opposed to the very end on this permission, arguing that the prisoner was unstable and killing off the future Hokage was a tragedy the Village couldn't take. Danzo had a more sinister reason for his opposing, but naturally he never spoke of it, choosing to let his dogs do the talking. Naturally the Hokage chose to play deaf ears on their advice and granted Minato a ten minute permission to visit the prisoner.

"She's cuffed and isolated form other prisoners," the Hokage said with a pain voiced, "and she's been starved to weaken her, yet she holds the key to a power far greater than we can understand. I know you have your teleport technique, but be careful."

Minato didn't listen to anything beyond 'starved'. To think the Hokage would get persuaded on harming one of his own! Just what kind of lies had Danzo planted into everyone's head?

"You have ten minutes." The guard said, opening the cell's without looking. He waited until Minato was inside, to close the door once more. If the prisoner was to go in rampage, he would only be blamed for one death, not twenty.

Minato waited until he heard foot steps and the closing of the door until he dared look in front of him.

It was atrocious. He knew that during this times of war, crimes against humanity were meant to happen. Torture, massive murder, kidnap and a bunch other he didn't have name from, yet what he saw in front of him left him speechless.

Chained to the wall and apparently asleep, was Kushina, her body in an uncomfortably sitting position with her head bowed down in a defeated way. Her ninja clothes had disposed off and only remained a few bandages covering her breast and some red pants that looked too thin to offer any kind of warmth. The cufflinks covering her wrist were soaked in blood, yet he had no way of knowing if its was hers or other prisoner's. Her exposed skin, which she had a lot off, was either covered in bruises, burns or cuts, with drips of dry blood here and there. On the very edge of her pants, on the right side of her abdomen, was a red bandage that covered the an apparent fresh wound, and he couldn't help but wonder if that had been inflicted recently or if she had been captured with it. Either way, it would get infected if not treated. But what really impressed him the most was the very apparent starved look that she had. Her once healthy creamy colored skin had been washed away, only to leave a ghost whiteness that took him back. The healthy muscles she had acquired over the years were gone, leaving only flesh sucking to the bone. The Hokage had mentioned this tactic to weaken her, yet he knew that that kind of starved structured couldn't be accomplished in a few weeks time. She'd been here far more time than he had originally imagined. The only thing that seemed normal to her was her hair, which cascaded down, covering the left part of her face.

'At least its not gone,' he thought, shaking his head in disbelief when he realized what he had just thought. 'What am I thinking? Treat her wound you idiot.' He kicked himself mentally and reached for his pocket where he had hidden some water and bandages just in case. He took a step forward but was forced back by an unseen force. 'A barrier?' Wondering just with what kind of strength had Kushina made one. And when?

"What do you want?" Kushina's lips suddenly moved, making him jump.

"Kushina," Minato said in a gentle voice. "It's me. I came-"

"What do you want?" she repeated, this time raising her head and opening her eyes to look at him.

Minato had seen the thousand yard stare a few times before. You couldn't outlive a war and not encounter a few soldiers that had adapted this look after a painfully long battle, yet, what he saw in Kushina at the moment, was something beyond that. Something he couldn't quite describe into words, but it was almost as if Kushina herself wasn't present and there was someone else controlling her body. Because surely, surely, those wonderfully violet eyes he had always loved hand't turned into this.

"What do you want?" she asked a third time, impatience in her voice. "Did you come here to question me? To torture me? To hurt me?" She leaned forward, pulling her cufflinks with her. If she weren't so weak, he knew that she would have broken them. "What do you want?!" she screamed, never taking her hands off him.

Minato was taken back. Was this really Kushina? The Kushina he knew? The Kushina he had gone to school with? The Kushina he'd had a crush on since the very first time he had laid eyes on her? His Kushina?

"Kushina," Minato whispered taking a step forward, "it's-"

"I know who you are," she eased back, leaning her head against the wall. "I could feel you ever since you entered the dungeons. You have the kind of chakra one cannot forget easily. What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Minato asked, confused over the question. What did he wanted? "Well to see you for one. To make sure that you-"

"What?" she focused her eyes on him once again. "Were safe and sound? Don't make me laugh. You were the one that commanded for my capture in the first place. This is all your will."

What did she say? That her capture had been his command? Where had she heard this? And more importantly, who had spread such an ugly rumor?

"What are you talking about? You were the one that was about to attack Konoha in the first place."

"I was not!" She screamed, leaning forward once more. The cufflinks dug painfully into her skin, yet she didn't seem fazed by this. "How many time will I-" She interrupted herself, before gaining a smirk. "Oh, I see. You're on his side."

"Whose side?" Minato raised an eyebrow, totally lost. One minute he's being accused of being the author of a such a crime and now, he had a partner apparently. "What are you-?"

"Guards!" Kushina interrupted him. "Guards! Guards!"

The boy who had brought him here came running, opening the door in such a way one would have thought the room was filling with water, yet he hesitated when he saw Minato give him a glare.

"Get him out of here!" Kushina yelled, frantic. "Get him out of here before I kill him!"

"Get out," Minato whispered vehemently.

The lad seemed confused at first but the frantic screams and his previous orders won over. "I'm sorry Namikaze-san but the Hokage-"

"Get out!" Minato repeated, this time using his body and a new tone to command the order. It was safe to say that even Danzo would have thought twice than to disobey.

The boy turned on his heels, leaving the door wide open and ran up the stairs, only to disappear after that door too.

Minato only had a few minutes at most before the boy called for reinforcements. Minato could have stopped him if he wanted, but he didn't want to cause more trouble for Kushina that she already had. He only had one more question after all.

"Why did you fail?"

Kushina didn't move at first. She kept her eyes downcast, choosing to look at the feet instead. Yet the unanswered question floating in the air was something excruciating to bare.

"Satoru opened his mouth apparently." She choked on her laugh. "What a bastard."

"You are wrong." Minato took a step forward. That last comment convinced him that this was not Kushina. She would never talk that way about someone she loved. Not even in her darkest of hours. "One of the walking corpses gave us a few hints."

Her eyes opened wide in a surprised manner. "Zombies?" she asked, in a such Kushina way that Minato almost fell relief fall over him. She was still there.

"The jutsu of the second Hokage. Someone dug it up."

"Bastards," she repeated, casting her eyes down again. She didn't say anything else for a few moments and as Minato opened his mouth to ask the question once again, she interrupted him. "There was a kid." she said slowly, almost as if she was choosing her words. "From the Waterfall Village. I don't know her name."

That didn't tell him much. He was as much in the dark as the time he had heard the story from the living corpse himself. There were just too many pieces missing. Knowing he didn't have much time till the other ninja appeared through the door, he made a seal, creating three other clones of himself. They would just have to do to give him a few more minutes. He nodded toward them, and focused once more on the red headed as his clones disappeared through the door.

"She told me..." Kushina continued, diverging her gaze from her feet. "She told me she had learned to control him. She had finally found the balance and that she was on good terms with him." Her gaze came back to her body and she refocused it on him. "She was just a little kid Minato. No older than ten years old."

"Did she tell you how she had managed?" Minato asked, looking over his shoulder when a he had grunts coming form the corridor.

Kushina frowned, almost as if she was having a hard time remembering what she was thinking. "She said, she had come to a balance with him. That they had reached a pact and that they were now one being."

"How?" Minato asked, once again. "How did she do it?"

The grunts were getting louder and Minato knew it was a matter of seconds.

"I couldn't kill her Minato." Kushina cried silently. "I couldn't do it."

"How?" Minato repeated, kneeling in front of her. The barrier was still there, but it was weakening.

"Kumo." Kushina forced herself to speak. There was something that was preventing her from revealing what she knew. She was fighting to get the words out. "Kumogakure has-"

"Namikaze Minato." The third Hokage walked through the door with his fighting gear on and a large monkey on his tow. "You are under arrest for treason."

Not being abel to explain his true intentions on sending the shadow clones to combat the Hokage, was more than just an annoyance to Minato. As Hokage in training he was expected to be in his best of behavior for as long as the trial in motion and the Damyio of the Fire country finally made his mind. Since the Jonin and the Hokage himself had already voted for his succession, it was a pretty much done deal, yet there had to be the a "ceremonial" approval from the king himself so that he could hold the title in name. It was annoying, yes, but every Hokage had to go through this before his rule. Yet, his most recent behavior and arrest was something the king wouldn't take lightly. Specially with the recent scandals Konoha had cause out side of war. Like Orochimaru's treason, Tsunade's self imposed exile, the suicide of Hatake Sakumo, who was still regarded as a traitor.

This had to be the worst time to get arrested.

"But he still approves, right?" Minato asked a little hopeful. Being Hokage had been his dream since he was a little kid in the academy. Getting this close to just get the his dream ripped away from under his nose was something he wasn't going to stand lightly on. "I mean, he still will-"

"I don't know what the Daimyo thinks half of the time, honestly," the third Hokage exhaled from his pipe a low sigh. "But with your most recent behavior I can't guarantee on his vote of approval. Even if he himself isn't that against it, he was advisers that wish to put someone else on the job. Politics." He waved his hand in annoyance. "You'll have to learn to walk through them throughout your rule."

Minato still wasn't convinced. He knew that his past actions were something others would use against him, because that's what people often did when you fell down, they would forget everything good you'd done in your life and just focus on the bad, yet he didn't let that thought distract him from the information he had gathered from Kushina a few days ago. Even though he was oblivious on the reason of her escape from the village, he knew it had something to do with Danzo. For some reason, and even if he had never showed it, Danzo gave him a bad feeling. It was as if he was actively trying to get the power to himself so he could control it in a way that benefitted everyone, yet his means weren't always the best. And for some reason, he had found Kushina, when not even Satoru or even himself had managed that after a year of searching for her. Danzo, either had powerful friend in other places or he had asked for his ROOT shinobi to hunt her down.

Minato got chills at the thought. He still remembered how those Kumo nin had treated her way back when they were thirteen. But there must be a reason for that. He had never really thought much about that at the time, he had been so young at the time, yet now that he understood how power worked, he couldn't help but wonder why would Kumogakure bother on capturing a young girl from another village, even if she came form a feared clan? Why not try to take someone from said village, an elder that had far more knowledge on the seal he assumed they were after? And why take her straight to Kumo? If all they wanted from her was the seal formulas, they could have just laid a genjutsu on her and question her on the spot.

And what was the deal on her abrupt disappearance? Why would she leave the village in this times of war? And to where?

He was interrupted from his thoughts when the doors to his cell opened, revealing a shinobi he had seen many times before, yet he could count the times they'd talked on one hand.

"Uchiha-san," Minato bowed slightly watching with wide eyes as Kushina's team mate walked through the door. "What can I help you with?"

Satoru had a blank expression on his face. There was no emotion on it, yet the lack of it was something he wasn't that surprised about. He had always been that way. At least when he wasn't with Kushina. "Namikaze-san," Satoru bowed back. "I'm here to take you home."

Having your crush's crush get you out of jail definitely left a bitter taste in anyone's mouth. It wasn't that Minato didn't like Uchiha Satoru, he liked him fine, as far as Uchiha's went, seeing as most of them had a problem with ego and bad mood swings, but in his life, Minato could count the times they'd spoken to one another in one hand. And again, it wasn't a not liking each other thing that kept them apart on the speaking level, it was just the fact that being two years apart and having no friends in common besides Kushina, kind of made relating to one another a little hard. And the few times they had spoken to one another outside of mission, Kushina had been there. Now, not only had Minato been in an embarrassing situation, but, Kushina was nowhere around to mediate the two of them. Not that it would help much. Minato knew just how close he and Kushina were.

'Especially since last time,' he thought bitterly, remembering the time when he had been at the hospital, Kushina had come by to visit, but most of her attention had been on the Uchiha.

'Why don't you just go visit him?'

'They won't let me see him.'

"Not that it stopped you." Minato muttered under his breath.

"What?" Satoru asked, stopping his tea cup mid way.

"Nothing," Minato blushed slightly, taking a long sip from his tea.

They were in one of the many cafes the village had, by a large park near the Hokage tower. It was crawling with people drinking tea and catching up with the friends, but Minato quite like the noise, being holed up in a lone cell for a few days had made him itch for human noise other than the screams of his cell mates.

It felt weird sitting up front one of the most powerful Uchiha in the village. Rumor had it that the title of Uchiha clan leader was being disputed by he and Uchiha Fugaku, meaning that in the future, if Satoru were to be chosen as clan leader, Minato would have to consult things with him when the Hokage title was finally passed down.

'If that ever happens.' Minato wondered how his recent misbehavior had affected his chances. Maybe the council were having second thoughts of the thirds decision after all. Danzo had never been on board with his succession in the first place, arguing that such responsibility could only fall on someone with maturity and experience, like Orochimaru. Maybe, Danzo was even convincing the other village leaders about the thirds wrong decision and to vote for his instead. Maybe he was really about to-

"Stop worrying about it," Satoru sighed, not really looking at him.

Minato who had been lost in thought snapped back to reality, hearing the loud buzz of chatter in the background. "What?" he asked, not really knowing what Satoru meant to say.

"You know what." Satoru fixed his dark eyes on Minato, commanding some kind of silence from the blonde about something in particular. "She'll be released soon anyways."

"She will?" Minato couldn't help the wonder in his tone. He hadn't heard anything about that. Not even from the start. The only reason he knew that she was there, was because he had accidentally overheard Danzo talking about it with the Hokage. After that, it had taken him a hole lot of persuasion and calling back favors to even get the so called ten minutes for the visit. For Satoru to know that...

"My father told me," Satoru explained, taking another sip from his tea. "They are only keeping her there because they are afraid of her mental state."

They. The village advisers. "She seemed fine to me," Minato lied, treading carefully to know what Satoru knew. Maybe he had even visited her before. If he had the power to get him out of community jail, he certainly would have the connections to visit Kushina. "A little desperate, but fine at the core."

Satoru humped at his comment, something Minato didn't understand. What was it about it that was funny. "Then you don't know what really happened." Satoru didn't look at him, instead he chose to look at his tea. "And about the concerns of other people."

Minato narrowed his eyes in confusion. What was there to know? Kushina had left the village when they had been looking for her for an explanation about the killed shinobi in the last Iwa attack. Since her disappearance had been taken by the higher ups as an act of treason, they had dispatched ANBU teams to find her, one finally catching up to her in a village held by the Kumo army. Apparently they had been hiding her there, something no one still understood, but this had been looked at as an act of treason, leading to her capture and eventual imprisonment. Or that's what he had read on the report he had smuggled from the Hokage's office, again, he wasn't even supposed to know half of this stuff.

"Know what?" Minato, asked, hoping that his insistence would make Satoru spilled something. He was getting really annoyed at his criptic comments.

"I thought Kushina had told you," Satoru raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I thought that she had explained herself while you are at the hospital."

Now it was Minato who was surprised. Was she supposed to have explained anything while he had been admitted to the hospital? If so, why hadn't she? "She was really concerned about you," Minato explained, not touching his now cold tea. "She kept asking for you to the nurses."

That made Satoru smile. It was no wonder, either, he would have been happy if Satoru had told him that Kushina had been more worried about him that his team mate.

"Did she?" Satoru asked, even thought it wasn't really a question. "I guess I have a lot of explaining to do." He sipped the last of his tea and ate the danjos slowly, savoring every bite. Minato got really annoyed at that. It was one thing to say that you needed to explain something and get on with it, and it was another thing to say it and then ignore the subject completely. Wasn't he even going to attempt at explaining what he was supposed to?

"Meet me at midnight tonight by the forest behind the library," Satoru said, getting up from his seat. "I'll explain everything you need to know about what happened."

And with no further explanations on his part and no comment on the unpaid bill, Satoru disappeared behind a group of teenage chunin,

Minato, who had been left alone at the cafe, wondered what had all that been about. He felt more confused that ever, because apparently all the questions he had were wrong.


End file.
